Young Love
by chikahchik
Summary: Rikku has never understood the meaning of young love; will somebody teach it to her? Gippal.x.Rikku


**NOTE: **An attempt at writing in first person. It was actually fun to write this. Oh, and this was written years ago. LoL. READ AND REVIEW; tell me what you think!**  
DISCLAIMER: **characters are not mine**  
WARNING: **um…none**  
PAIRING: **Gippal / Rikku**  
SUMMARY: **Rikku has never understood the meaning of young love; will somebody teach it to her?

. . . . . .

**YOUNG LOVE**

"Hey, Cid's girl!"

Oh no! I sighed as I heard the voice that annoyed me and sent butterflies in my stomach all at the same time. I turned around and found the vision of Gippal walking towards me. What did I ever do to the Gods to deserve Gippal's company? Don't they know how much he tortured me?

"What?" I snapped.

"He held up his hands in defense as he approached me. "Whoa! No need to be all catty. I just came here to ask if you wanted to join the Machine Faction."

"I have better things to do than work for you," I replied snottily.

Okay, I'm not usually this bratty, but there's just something about this guy that got on my nerves. Maybe it's because I know that I'll never have a chance with him. He was way too gorgeous to be interested in me…IT'S NOT FAIR! Everyone had somebody. Yunie has Tidus, Lulu has Wakka (and a baby)—even Paine has Baralai! Not to forget: LeBlanc and Nooj. And who did I have? NOBODY—that was who! My life is pathetic…

But, oh! I've zoned out. It looked like Gippal had said something and was waiting for me to answer him. Gosh, I should've paid attention to him…now I don't know what to say. "Huh?" I asked stupidly.

He arched an eyebrow. "I said: _'like what?'_"

I blinked rapidly. What did I say before? Geez, I could be so dense at times! "Huh?" And the award for the stupidest person in the world goes to—

Gippal smirked. "You said you had better things to do. What are they? Gee…is your head _that_ empty?"

"NO!" I growled. "And it's none of your business. I don't have to tell you what I'm going to do."

"Because there's _nothing_ for you to do."

Ouch! Right on the nose—as usual…but I wasn't about to let him know that he was right. "Don't be so sure."

"There are no more spheres to hunt, so the Gullwings are taking a break, and the world is back to its Eternal Calm."

"And your point is?" I tapped my foot impatiently.

"You have nothing. The world doesn't need you right now. So come on, join the Faction."

"If the world doesn't need me, then neither does the Faction. Now," I pushed him out of the way, "if you don't mind, I'm going to visit Yunie and Tidus at Besaid."

"If I go with you, would you consider joining?"

"No chance in hell!"

"Ah, Cid's girl, that hurts!"

I rolled my eyes. I don't know why he insisted on calling me that. "I have a name!" I whined.

He shrugged as I began to walk away. I heard footsteps behind me. I knew it was him, following closely behind. Great! Now he's stalking me…was he _that_ desperate to get me to join his little group?

Okay, here's a little low down on my life so far. I'm Rikku, helped saved Spira—twice—and I'm seventeen years old. I used to be one of Yunie's Guardians—back when she was a Summoner; then I belonged to a group of sphere hunters called the _Gullwings_ with Yunie and Paine, Buddy and Brother (or _Aniki_—whichever you prefer), Shinra and others. I have one brother (that would be Brother/Aniki) and Cid's my _'Pop'_. Yunie—famously known as _Yuna_—is my cousin. I'm an Al Bhed; my kind used to be discriminated against because we used _Machina _at a time when it was considered to be sinful. Now…I guess it was okay, since Sin was gone. Machina was referred to as _Machines_ now; and everyone was leading a safe and carefree life. And I'm bored as hell! Right…I forgot to mention, it's been two years since Sin was defeated and three months since the Vegnagun incident. Oh yeah, and I've been crushin' on Gippal ever since I could remember. Yeah, yeah…weird, I know. I couldn't—and still can't understand it…I mean, he bothers me _every _chance he gets!

I finally reached Celsius (the Gullwings' airship). Brother drove the airship while Buddy handled the coordinates for all the destinations. I entered it and headed for the Bridge to tell Brother that I wanted to go to Besaid. Gippal was still hot on my trail. Doesn't that guy ever quit? I turned to face him. He stopped as soon as he caught my gaze and shrugged.

"What do you want?" I inquired as calmly as I could.

"I told you. Come join the Machine Faction…please?" he pouted.

Oh, how cute! But…NO! I must _not_ let his adorable face get to me. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. "I already said _'no'_ earlier. Stop being such a pest!"

"Sorry, but it's my job to bother you. Why don't you want to join anyway?"

"I don't want to have to see your face everyday." What a lie!

"Come on!" he insisted.

"You're so annoying. I'm walking away now."

"Fine, have it your way!"

I turned and left, but I heard him following me—again! I turned my head and called out, "What are you going to do? Follow me wherever I go until I get fed up with you and join?"

"If that's what it takes…then sure, why not?"

I groaned and looked up. What am I going to do with him? Aha! That's it. I'm going to ignore him! Good idea, Rikku! I'm so smart!

Anyway, I told Brother and Buddy where I wanted to go and they were both happy to take me there. Before he readied the airship for its departure, they gave Gippal, who was just standing a few feet behind me, a strange look; then they glanced at me. I shook my head and shrugged. Buddy grinned while Brother just turned away. Soon, we were on our way.

I stayed in the Cabin, laying down in one of the beds, for most of the trip—trying to be as far from Gippal as possible. My efforts weren't in vain. He had stayed in the Bridge with Brother and Buddy, but as we neared Besaid, he went into the Cabin. I sighed, but made no move to acknowledge his presence.

He approached me and my heart started beating faster—I couldn't help it! He grinned at me, but I looked the other way. I heard him sigh as he lay down beside me. Uh oh…if my heart beat any faster, it would be blown out of my chest. I could feel him staring at me, but still, I paid no attention to him. He sighed again.

"Look, if you'd just agreed to join, you wouldn't have this problem of having me around so much," he told me dejectedly.

"You never give up, do you?" I asked.

Instead of answering my question, he said, "Buddy told me to tell you that we're almost at Besaid, so get ready."

With that, he got up off the bed and left me in the Cabin. That got me thinking. Maybe I _should_ join the Faction. What was the worse that could happen? Besides, I'd never seen Gippal _this_ persistent to get someone to work for him. Usually, he brushed people off when they wanted to join the Machine Faction—like what he did to Yunie three months ago, when she had wanted to go dig at Bikanel Desert. But of course, Yunie wouldn't let him push her around, so she convinced him to let her dig.

Ah, I'm off topic! Okay, so _what_ should I do? Should I join? Or should I just have to get used to him stalking me? Maybe I should as Yunie…NO! This is my decision; I shouldn't bother her about it.

I stood up and paced around the Cabin, until I heard Brother's voice over the intercom, informing everyone on the ship that we've landed in Besaid. I smiled widely and immediately ran off the ship. I found Wakka sitting down on the white sand of the beach. I called out to him. He turned and gave me a wave.

"How are you?" I greeted as I reached his position.

He nodded, "I'm fine, ya."

"That's good!"

"What brings you here to Besaid?"

"Oh you know, just visiting. How's everyone?"

"They're all good. Come on, I'll bring you to them." He stood up and motioned for me to follow him.

I giggled and ran after him. I heard Buddy and Gippal laughing. I looked back and found Brother sitting in the water, fist waving in the air. My guess is: Buddy pushed him down while the three of them were getting off the ship. I chuckled and shook my head. Poor Brother. Everyone was always making him look like a fool. But honestly, he _made_ it so _easy_ for people to play tricks on him.

Finally, after walking for quite some time, Wakka and I finally reached the village. There, I found Yunie and Tidus having a play-fight in the center of all the tents. She threw a punch, but Tidus caught her wrist, spun her around so that her back was facing him and pulled her towards him. He held her tight as they giggled endlessly. I saw Wakka shaking his head, but he had a smile on his face.

"They're always like that," he told me. "Young love…isn't it glorious?"

I didn't say anything. How was I supposed to know? Here I was, still waiting for my long-time crush to notice me…then Wakka goes and asks me _that_! _What_ was he thinking? Anyway, I hear Buddy, Brother and Gippal arrive. Brother was still yelling at Buddy in Al Bhed, while the other two just couldn't stop laughing. The yelling caused Yunie and Tidus to stop what they were doing and watch us. I gave him a huge grin and jogged over to them. Tidus gave me a questioning glance while Yunie voiced out his question. Cute—their brainwaves were connected!

"What happened to them?" she laughed.

I shook my head. "Buddy pushed Brother off the airship as they were getting off it."

Tidus chuckled; then he noticed Gippal's presence. "What about him? What's he doing here? Did you kidnap him, Rikku?" he gave me a knowing look.

I glared at him. "No. For your information, he followed me here. He asked me to join the Faction, but I declined. So now, he plans on bothering me until I agree to take the job."

"I…see…"

Out of all my friends, Tidus was the only one who knew about my crush. I didn't tell him! He found out by himself. It was the party after Spira was saved from the wrath of a thousand year old spirit—and Vegnagun. Tidus had returned from the dead (I know, crazy, huh?) and Wakka threw a party for his return—and the safety of the world. Anyway, everyone was invited. The whole Gullwings crew, the Youth League (an ally of the Gullwings during the troubles with Vegnagun), the Machine Faction (another ally) and the Syndicates (yet, another ally) were there. Even the Ronsos—now led by Khimari—came down the mountain to party with us.

Yunie was entertaining the other guests while Paine and I stood by the buffet table (we were both so hungry!). Then Baralai came along and asked Paine to dance (that started their whole relationship). I was alone, once again. A few seconds later, Tidus appeared out of nowhere and poured some fruit punch for himself.

"Hey, Rikku! Why are you standing here all by yourself?" he had asked me cheerfully.

"No reason. I just felt like standing here," I answered him as if it was the most obvious answer in the world. "So, have you met everyone?"

"Yeah. That Gippal dude's very ambitious, but he's cool."

I could feel the heat crawling up my cheeks at hearing his name. I remembered hoping that Tidus wouldn't notice, but unfortunately, he did. Oh, by the way, I've finally been able to control the blushing—it was the butterflies in the stomach and my pounding heart that I still have to work on. Anyway, as I was saying: Tidus _did_ notice my blush…and Tidus being Tidus, decided to comment on it.

"Rikku…you're all red in the cheeks. What's up? You like him, don't you?" he teased.

"Wha—NO! W-what are you talking about?" I stammered.

He laughed. "Wow! Little Rikku has a crush! That's so cute!"

"You're out of your mind! I don't have a crush on anybody—especially him!"

"Someone's in denial…" he whistled innocently.

I growled. There was no point in arguing with Tidus; he was just like Gippal—_extremely_ annoying.

Anyway, back to present time. Brother was _still_ yelling his butt off, Buddy was still laughing at him, Wakka's gone off somewhere (probably to go get Lulu) and Yunie and Tidus went back to play-fighting. Someone was missing. I looked around for Gippal, but it seemed that he's disappeared. I walked around the village, trying to find the missing member of our group. Where had Gippal run off to? He was nowhere in the village…where else? Aha! The beach! He must've headed back to the airship…or something like that.

Turned out, I was right. Gippal was standing on the shore. I ran up to him and stood beside him. He turned his head to look at me, but didn't say anything. We stood there quietly for a few minutes, but soon, the silence began to bother me. I'm a talkative person—I can't stand to be silent for a long time!

"So…" I began.

"So…" he echoed.

"Whatcha doing here?"

"What does it look like? I'm _standing_."

I frowned, "I know that!"

"Well then, if you knew that, you shouldn't have asked."

"I was just trying to start a _conversation_. Duh!"

Okay, remind me why I'm so interested in this guy again. I saw him shrug from the corner of my eyes.

"You really don't want to consider joining the Faction?" he asked suddenly.

I wasn't expecting that—even though I should've, since he was bugging me about it, all day. I didn't know what to say, so I just asked him the question that's been eating me ever since he offered me the job. "Why do you want me to join it so much?"

"No reason. I told you, there's nothing left for you to do…so I'm just offering you something that could help you pass your time."

I scrunched up my face and thought about what he said. He was right; I had nothing to do…but was working for him really a good idea? I mean, I practically die whenever I see him from time to time—but if I join the Machine Faction, I'd see him everyday. That's never good—especially with the many Al Bhed girls there, trying to get his attention. Many of them were pretty too. They could easily win him over…I don't stand a chance.

Ah, but I shouldn't be thinking about _that_. I need to make a decision. I needed the money…and as I've said before: I'm bore as hell. Oh whatever, why not? If I didn't like what it, I could easily quit. Okay, I'll take the job.

"Fine," I blurted out.

"Huh?"

"Are you dense? I said: _'fine'_. I'll take the job."

"Really?" he grinned.

"Oh for the love of Yevon! I'm takin' the job. Now don't push your luck or I might change my mind!"

"That's great!" Gippal took me in his arms and lifted me up off the ground. We spun around a couple of times before he fell down because he was so dizzy. He landed on his back I landed right on top of him.

Uh oh! Not good—I could feel a blush coming. Great! I thought I'd gotten that under control! I scrambled off of him before he could notice my crimson cheeks. I ran into the water and quickly dove in, trying to cool myself off. I stayed underwater for a couple of minutes, since I was capable of holding my breath for long periods of time, until I was sure that the redness had faded off my face.

When I emerged, I saw Gippal with a confused look on his pretty face. How incredibly adorable! Yeah, it must've been strange to watch me get off him and jump into the water—but can you blame me? I think not! I headed for shore and walked towards him.

Gippal smiled at me and shook his head. "Has anyone ever told you that you're a strange girl?" he asked.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah. You—ever since we were kids."

He chuckled. "It was as true then as it is now. You never change."

"Well…what's the fun in that? If I changed, then there'd be no one left for you to bug."

"True…"

With that, he picked me up again and threw me over his shoulder. What was he doing! I felt him moving and I checked out where he was taking me to. He was going in the direction of the village—but why he had to haul me over his shoulder, I don't know. Has anyone ever told him that he was a strange boy?

Ack! I didn't know that I had voiced that question out loud until I heard him chuckle. "You've made it a point to tell me every time you see me."

I recalled his words from earlier. "It was as true then as it is now."

"Touché."

He put me down as we neared the ruins near the village. I rubbed my stomach. It really wasn't a great feeling to have someone's shoulder digging into your belly for at least five minutes. I moaned. "Why'd you have to do that?"

"I don't know…I just felt like it, I guess."

"Hm…you just felt like it…?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. Got a problem with that?"

"Um…no, not really."

"Good."

"Ah, so you'll have no problem if I felt like doing this?"

But before he could ask me what I was talking about, I planted my lips firmly on his. I felt him stiffen and expected to be pushed away, but he surprised me. Instead of shoving me off him, he pulled me in closer and took control of the kiss. I held my eyes closed tightly and prayed that this would last forever. I could feel heat surrounding my body as he deepened the kiss. I surrendered to his touch and wrapped my arms around his neck. I felt safe in his arms and I didn't care how long we've been standing there.

When we had separated to catch our breath, he whispered, " If I had known that you felt like doing that, I wouldn't have begged you to join the Faction."

"What? What does me joining have anything to do with this?" I gave him a suspicious look.

"Well...you see..." I could see his face turning pink. "I wanted you to join because I figured that if you saw me everyday, I'd be able to get you to notice me."

I smiled and opened my mouth to say something, but then, I heard giggles and catcalls coming people not so far away from us.

"I knew it!" Tidus yelled out. "You _did_ kidnap him so you could do _that_!"

"Tidus, _shut up_! I did no such thing." I rolled my eyes.

I heard Gippal chuckling. I looked at him and shook my head. He just shrugged at me before taking me in for another mind-blowing kiss as everyone around us cheered. I had no idea what they were doing there and why they were watching us, but at that time, I could care less. Gippal had me in his arms, kissing me passionately, and that was all that really mattered.

. . .

Two weeks later, I was in Djose, working on a machine that a couple of diggers had found in Bikanel Desert. I was so focused on my task that I hadn't noticed Gippal standing behind me. When I didn't pay attention to him, he wrapped his arms around my waist and lifted me up in the air. A surprised scream escaped my lips and he started to laugh. The other workers looked up from what they were doing, but when they saw that it was just Gippal torturing me again, they just smiled and shook their heads. Kind of reminded me of how Wakka reacted to Yunie and Tidus two weeks ago when we entered the village and found the couple play-fighting.

Wakka's voice echoed in my head. "Young love…isn't it glorious?"

I could now finally answer that question: _yes, Wakka…it's the best thing in the world!_

**END**


End file.
